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Sobre Valores Propios Vectores Propios
Sobre Valores Propios Vectores Propios
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COMPUTER
CORNER
EDITOR
Richard F. Johnsonbaugh
School of Computer Science,
Telecommunication Systems,
and Information Systems
DePaul University
Chicago, IL 60604-2287
johnsonbaugh@cs.depaul. edu
In this cotumn, readers are encouraged to share their expertise and experiences with computers as they
relate to college-level mathematics. Articles that illustrate how computers can be used to enhance
pedagogy, solve problems, and model real-life situations are especially welcome.
Classroom Computer Capsules feature new examples of using the computer to enhance teaching.
These short articles demonstrate the use of readily available computing resources to present or
elucidate familiar topics in ways that can have an immediate and beneficial effect in the classroom.
One picture is worth many words. Yet if you look through books that treat
eigenvalue and eigenvector problems, few pictures appear. Perhaps the pictures
described here can help remedy this lack of visual images?at least for real 2 by 2
matrices. My inspiration came from Professor Gilbert Strang's talk at the meeting
of the Indiana section of the MAA at DePauw University on March 19, 1994, in
which Strang suggested a moving picture of a 2 by 2 matrix A. His moving picture
would simultaneously display both u and A ? u as the unit vector u moves around
the unit circle. The "stroboscopic" pictures described here I call eigenpictures for
want of a better name. An eigenpictures capture the essence of Strang's movie in a
single image.
The reader may recall that a nonzero vector v is an eigenvector for matrix A if
the product A-\ is a scalar multiple, A, or v. The corresponding scalar, A, is an
eigenvalue of A In geometric terms, A-\ and v are parallel when v is an
eigenvector of A.
Can we find a way to search visually for real eigenvectors of a real 2 by 2 matrix
A! Since any nonzero scalar multiple of an eigenvector is also an eigenvector, we
need only search through the unit vectors in our guest for real eigenvectors. We
will picture a typical unit vector u as a directed line segment having initial point at
the origin, and we will attach the product A ? u to the terminal point of u, as in
Figure 1. The vector u shown in Figure 1 is not an eigenvector since the vectors u
and A ? u do not align.
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Figure 1
Technology to the rescue. Since we cannot look examine the real unit vectors,
we try a large, representative sample of them: vectors of the form
The following eigenpictures were generated using the computer algebra system
Derive. However, with a little work, any computer algebra system should produce
similar eigenpictures. The Derive procedures are given at the end of this article.
Eigenvectors
Figure 2
Eigenvalues A,i = 2, X2 = 1/2.
You can see the symmetry in the eigenpictures with respect to the origin. This
symmetry illustrates that if u is an eigenvector for matrix A, then -u is also, with
the same eigenvalue.
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Complex eigenvalues. The matrix
cos -sin
77
sinl ? cosi-
TT IT
Figure 3 shows the eigenpicture for this matrix. Multiplying a (real) vector
has the effect of rotating the vector through an angle of tt/4 radians?ther
no real eigenvectors. If matrix A has only complex eigenvalues, none of the v
A ? u will be parallel to the vector u.
Figure 3
Complex eigenvalues.
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Figure 4
A zero eigenvalue.
Figure 5
k\ = X2 = 1.
Derive procedures
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